CHAPTER II 



SOME LIVERPOOLS, INCLUDING KIRKLAND'S 



Mr. Bibby has always been a keen hunting man. This 

 book deals with the subject of racing, and it is not 

 within my province therefore to dilate on the admirable 

 service he did for many years as Master of the North 

 Shropshire Hounds. That he should freely have met 

 all demands on his purse may be described as merely a 

 characteristic, it would have distressed him to withhold 

 anything that was wanted, but he also expended time 

 and pains without stint, bent only on assuring the best 

 obtainable sport. Before the colours were known at the 

 principal meetings they had become familiar at minor 

 fixtures, at Tenby, Cardiff, Monmouth, Chepstow, and 

 other places where the amount of the prizes to be won 

 is by no means a measure of the sport often provided. 

 His first absolute success was in the Shropshire Point to 

 Point in 1895, ^^^ humble heroine being a mare called 

 Celsia, daughter of an animal who had carried him to 

 hounds. Celsia was doubtless more at home in the 

 hunting field than between the flags, for though she ran 

 on several occasions she does not seem to have been 



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